


Queen Leia

by lirin



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Padmé Lives, Children, Gen, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25744234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Leia's been stuck on a hidden Rebel base with Mama and Luke her whole life. But now she finally gets to go on her very own undercover mission!
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	Queen Leia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



"I used to do my hair like this all the time," Mama tells Leia. She's kneeling on the floor mat, which makes her just about the same height as Leia, and she's twisting Leia's hair into some kind of shape that she can't see, but it sure _feels_ very fancy.

"Before you almost died and we all came to hide with the Rebellion?"

"Exactly," Mama says. "When I was Queen, we would arrange my hair and fix my makeup and everybody recognized me as the Queen. And then when I had my hair plain and no makeup, nobody recognized me and I could be just plain Padmé. You're going to do the same thing, but in reverse."

Luke is sitting on the dome of the long-suffering R2-D2, swinging his legs. "What do you mean, in reverse?" he asks, which is exactly what Leia was about to say. "You look funny," he adds, and Leia sticks out her tongue at him.

"You and your sister look enough like me and like...your father, that if somebody saw outside the Rebellion saw you dressed normally like you are now, there'd be a risk that they might realize who you were. But once we're done, all anybody who looks at Leia will see is the costume. Nobody will recognize her." (Leia wonders if Mama whispered "I hope..." after that last bit, or if she just imagined it.)

"So what if the real Queen shows up?"

Mama's suddenly very still, and one of the pins she's pushing into Leia's hair slips and bumps painfully against Leia's scalp. "Do you remember when I told you this might be dangerous?"

"Is that the dangerous part? If the real Queen shows up?"

"Why don't _I_ get to do something dangerous?" Luke asks. He kicks his boot heels against R2-D2 and almost slips off of him onto the floor. Leia's pretty sure he used the Force to catch himself, and she thinks he's got a lot of nerve complaining about her getting to do something when he gets to do so much with the Force. Obi-Wan spends as much time teaching her as he does Luke, but somehow it doesn't make as much sense to Leia as it does to them.

"The real Queen," Mama says, and then she sighs. "According to the latest reports, the real Queen is a prisoner of the Empire. But they're keeping it very secret. Nobody outside Empire high command is supposed to know, but fortunately we have very good spies."

"But won't the Empire arrest Leia too, then?"

"Not as long as we're quick," Mama says. "And the best part is, they can't tell anybody that our pretend Queen wasn't the real Queen without admitting that they're holding her prisoner. So they won't say, and nobody will be the wiser." She sighs again. "But I won't say it's not dangerous. I wouldn't ask you to do this, Leia, but anybody else would be too tall."

"Yeah, and she's too short," Luke says. Leia sticks her tongue out at him again.

"Nobody will be measuring her height or looking too closely," Mama says. "We've put lifts in her shoes, and that should be enough to make your eight-year-old sister look like a twelve-year-old queen. There, all done!" She stops tugging Leia's hair this way and that, and stands up. "You look very elegant," she says. "Are you ready?"

Leia nods. She almost feels like crying, which surprises her, because she was very excited to be given this mission. This is the most important thing she's ever gotten to do for the Rebellion, and Mama told her she was proud of her. She should be happy. She throws her arms around Mama and rubs her face against Mama's tunic, just in case there are any tears threatening to leak out.

Mama hugs her back, her arms tight around Leia's shoulders. "You're going to be fine, and Luke and I will be waiting right here when you get back."

R2-D2 bleeps that he'll be there too.

"Thanks, R2," Leia says. "I'm ready for you to do my face now, Mama."

"This won't take long," Mama says. "Luke, run and go tell the General to get Leia's shuttle ready." She flips open a battered old cosmetics box and dips a paintbrush in one of the wells. "Close your eyes now."

It doesn't take long at all. Ten minutes later, Leia is sitting in her shuttle next to C-3PO, who Mama has assured her is a perfectly capable co-pilot even if he does talk too much.

All she has to do is land on the base, inform the governor of her feigned identity, and ask for him to give her some data that the Queen has every right to possess. (And she has to do it all without worrying about whether she'll ever see Mama again, or tearing up and smudging her makeup, or letting anybody know that she's scared.)

The shuttle is so easy to handle, a five-year-old could do it. Which is the only reason Mama let her go alone, Leia supposes. She can't wait till she's older and actually allowed to do more things to help the Rebellion.

But until then, at least she has this one thing. Even Luke hasn't been allowed to venture outside the Rebel base yet! She slides the shuttle to a slightly bumpy stop, and steps out. She strides across the landing pad to an assortment of humans and droids standing nearby, and she doesn't even stumble once in her ridiculously tall shoes. "Governor Osaril," she says in an imitation of Mama's most stern voice. "Thank you for meeting me so promptly." 

The governor actually bows. She's never had somebody bow to her before. (Well, unless you count the time when she and Luke were pillow fighting and she accidentally punched him really hard in the stomach and he kind of doubled over.) "I apologize that you had to come all this way, my lady, but I can't give this to just anybody."

"I understand," Leia says sternly. She holds out her hand, and he places three data cards into it. She slips the cards into her pocket, and hopes really hard that he's not lying about what they contain.

"Dinner will be served in an hour, if you wish to stay until then," the governor says.

Leia shakes her head. Too many chances to mess up between now and then. "I don't like to be away from my people for any longer than I must, but thank you."

"In that case, safe journeys," the governor says. He bows again, and this time he kisses her hand too. Suddenly, Leia is very grateful for all the makeup Mama slathered her face with because her cheeks have gone very hot.

"Thank you, governor," she says. She turns around and marches back to the shuttle, and C-3PO helps her warm up the engines, and just like that, her first secret mission is finished.

Of course, it's still possible that this was all a setup and the data cards have junk data on them, but the fact that nobody was lying in wait to capture her is a good sign. And just in case the data cards were baited with something to track their location, as soon as she gets picked up by the cruiser that dropped her off, they're going to copy the data cards and discard the originals, and then they're going to take a roundabout way home. It will be fine. But from Leia's first glances at the reader C-3PO plugged one of the data cards into, it will be better than fine. There's so much useful information here, and at least as far as she can tell, it sure looks real. And why wouldn't it be? She didn't give them any reason to suspect her.

Leia clenches her fists tight and then releases them, breathing out a sigh that sounds almost as grown-up as one of Mama's sighs. She's a real Rebel now. Just like Mama.


End file.
